Recipe management systems are used in semiconductor and other manufacturing facilities to manage recipes and insure that the correct recipes are run for the materials being processed, such as a semiconductor substrate or a group of semiconductor substrates, i.e. “lot”, in semiconductor manufacturing. Recipe management systems are used in conjunction with the various types of semiconductor manufacturing tools used to fabricate semiconductor devices.
Recipe management systems typically include an input device in communication with several semiconductor manufacturing tools. The recipes are selected at the semiconductor manufacturing tool either manually by an engineer, technician or other personnel, or automatically when a production lot with encoded electronic instructions is loaded on the semiconductor manufacturing tool. The recipe selection is delivered by the input device to the recipe management system (RMS) which may include one or more computers and various recipes stored in data bases.
When a recipe is selected to be run in the semiconductor manufacturing facility, it must be verified as the correct recipe for the desired process operation. Each recipe includes a number of processing parameters associated with the semiconductor manufacturing processing operation in which the recipe is used. The process parameters are associated with various process conditions such as total process time, temperature, pressure, RF or other power, bias, gas or liquid flow rates, ratios of the various components delivered and utilized, dispense volume, spin speed, exposure settings, scan speed, ramp-up time, ramp-down time, and so forth. Different parameters are associated with different types of process operations and associated recipes, and each recipe is characterized by a unique set of parameter settings for the parameters.
Various factors can necessitate a change to process parameter settings. Some of the factors include a desire to produce a different product, e.g. a deposited film with a different thickness, composition, porosity, reflectivity, morphology or with other different film characteristics. The same is true for other semiconductor fabrication processes. For example, it may be desirable to increase an etch rate or produce a higher degree of anisotropy in an etching process. Other design changes may also require various changes in process parameter settings. The environment within the semiconductor manufacturing area may warrant adjustments to parameter settings in some or all processing recipes. Further, each semiconductor manufacturing tool may drift in time. Various manufacturing tools that are the same model, may drift differently and corrections in the way of adjusted parameter settings may be required to compensate for the indicated drift of the particular tool. Further, the quality or concentration of a source material such as a processing gas, a coating material or an evaporation target, may warrant changes in settings for various processing parameters in various recipes.
In summary, many factors may necessitate change to one or more process parameter settings. The change may be warranted in all process recipes, related process recipes, or only in individual process recipes. It would be desirable to be confident that a selected recipe includes the correct settings for all process parameters.